The Law in Jesus’ Day

Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Matthew 5:17-19; Mark 10:17-22

GOLDEN TEXT: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”—Matthew 5:17

THE fundamental principles of God’s law never change. In the outworking of his plan for the salvation of the human race from sin and death, the details of his will for those who serve him may and do vary from age to age, but the variation of these details does not change the basic principles of divine law. Jesus quoted Moses’ summary of the law given to Israel through him, and referred to it as the greatest commandment, and the one upon which hung all the law and the prophets. That summary was to the effect that we should love God with all our hearts, and with, a love that would not stop short of devoting everything we have and are to the doing of his will.

God, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, the One in whom we live and move and have our being, cannot accept for himself anything less than full devotion. “Some of self and some of thee,” will not do. One who has such an attitude is described by James as being “double-minded,” and because of this, “unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:8) “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” is the First Commandment, and it is well to remember that any interests which we may permit to stand between us and our God, and which are claiming undue time and attention, might well be considered other “gods.” Jehovah, our Heavenly Father, must come first in our affections, first in our planning, and first in everything, if we are to be pleasing to him.

What it means for God to come first in our lives, and for his will to be the supreme rule of life, is well set forth by Moses: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” To love God with our hearts means to have our affections set upon him and upon the doing of his will. To love him with all our souls means the devotion of our entire beings to his service. To love him with all our might is to devote our strength of mind and body to the carrying out of his commands.

And God’s commands, Moses writes, are to be in our hearts. We are not to think of them as merely representing a duty which devolves upon us, but are to love God’s will and law.

In Jesus we have a perfect example of One who truly delighted in doing God’s will, whether expressed through the Mosaic law, or through the law of the new creation. The spirit of Jesus’ consecration was prophetically indicated by the Psalmist, saying, “Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God.” (Psalm 40:7,8) In the performance of this covenant to do God’s will, Jesus fulfilled the law; that is, he carried out the great principle pointed to in the commandments and summed up by Moses to mean supreme and undivided love for God, even to the point of giving up life itself, should this be the divine will.

Paul had this thought in mind concerning the church when he wrote, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:4) To walk after the Spirit is to walk in the footsteps of Jesus; and this, in turn, is to walk in the way of sacrifice—even unto death. The law did not call directly for sacrifice: but it did call for supreme love to God; and if at any time the will of God should be that one suffer and die in his cause, the righteousness of the law would not be fulfilled in one’s life unless he walked in this way of sacrifice.

The rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked what he could do to inherit eternal life, thought he had fulfilled the law. Referring to the commandments he said, “All these have I observed from my youth.” Jesus loved this young man, but pointed out to him that he was lacking in righteousness, not because he had committed murder, or theft, or had violated any of the other commandments. Nor was his lack up to this point necessarily because he had failed in loving God with all his heart, soul, and strength.

But now the time had come when his love for God was to be put to a more rigid test. Now it was God’s will that he sacrifice all that he had and take up his cross and follow the Master into death. He was not willing and ready to meet this test, so he turned aside. He thought he loved God completely, but when the supreme test came, his earthly possessions meant more than doing the will of him whom he professed to love.

The divine plan does not indicate that God will ask all who obtain eternal life first of all to sacrifice their lives; but they will be required to renounce their own selfish wills, and no one shall receive everlasting life who would not be willing to make even this sacrifice of life if God indicated it to be his will for them. This is the righteousness, the great objective of full devotion, contained in the law.

QUESTIONS:

Do the fundamental principles of God’s law ever change?

What is the “righteousness of the law”? How is it fulfilled in the church?

Will all who gain eternal life need to give up their lives in sacrifice?

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